Lynn senior forward Jackee Dodd goes up for two more of her 29 points in a breakthrough 53-43 victory Saturday morning at the Class 1A Northwest regional final against second-ranked R.A. Hubbard. The No. 4 Bears beat their rival for the first time in four tries at the Northwest regional in Hanceville. (Bob Gathany/bgathany@al.com)

The thought of Alex Gholston and R.A. Hubbard might have been the stuff to inspire a nightmare or two for the girls on the Lynn basketball team.

But not anymore.

Jackee Dodd and the No. 4 Bears came through with an inspired performance to finally gather in what victory tastes like in a 53-43 victory Saturday morning at the Class 1A Northwest girls regional final at Wallace State. Dodd led all scorers with 29 points to earn 1A Northwest Regional MVP honors.

Gholston had 21 points against Lynn, but couldn't lead her basketball to the Final 48 in Birmingham for the fourth time in six varsity seasons.

"When you prepare for R.A. Hubbard, you prepare for Alex Gholston," Dodd said in the post-game interview room. "We went out and prepared for her. Me and her, when we are out on the court, we are not friends out there. We are not friends. The whole game we are back and forth. She's talking in my ear and I'm talking in hers. ... Finally I'm the one sitting in here a winner and she's the one going home."

It was a treasured result because Gholston and her second-ranked Chiefs had eliminated Dodd's teams at the Northwest Regional in each of the last three seasons.

"All season I work and I work and when I stay and do an extra rep in the weight room or when I stay for an extra hour in the gym it has been because I want to beat R.A. Hubbard," Dodd said. "People tell me not to think too much about it, but I do think about beating R.A. Hubbard all the time anyway."

Dodd's 29 points came on 11-of-14 shooting and she grabbed 15 rebounds to secure the program's first trip to the Final 48 in school history. She did so despite battling a stomach virus and having to get a shot on Friday to help alleviate those symptoms.

She said it didn't really help, but she still had 20 points and 15 rebounds in the second half. The 5-foot-11 senior said she was playing at a level pretty much near exhaustion.

"I was like, 'Coach, I can't really catch my breath. I don't know what's wrong with me,' at one point," Dodd said. "Finally I thought I'm just going to dig in and when I came back I'm not coming out again."

She even spent most of the second half in foul trouble but this was different because of a remarkable third quarter. Lynn erased an 18-15 deficit by scoring the first 14 points of the second half to claim the lead and never really look back.

That was the lineRin the sand. R.A. Hubbard separated itself from Lynn for the third straight Northwest regional last season in a third quarter no Bear could ever forget.

"Right before the quarter started for about 20 seconds that was the focus," Lynn coach Adam Gray said. "We were going to let that be our quarter this year. I thought we played a lot better in that quarter than we had in the past. I thought that was the difference."

Gholston finished with 21 points but failed to score in that decisive third quarter. Junior quarter Reagan Tittle also had 16 points for the Bears.

Jeff Sentell covers Birmingham high school sports for The Alabama Media Group and The Birmingham News. Write to him at jsentell@al.com.